Animal Protection New Mexico Takes the State Game Commission to Court

Today Animal Protection of New Mexico, the Humane Society of the U.S., and concerned citizens filed legal action in state and federal courts challenging the NM Game Commission’s appalling decision to expand cougar trapping.

The state action filed by APNM, joined by the Humane Society of the United States and other concerned New Mexicans, focuses on the lack of scientific data to support the expansion of trapping on state trust lands and the removal of the permit requirement to trap on both public and private lands. The result of this misguided rule is likely to jeopardize hikers with dogs, as well as protected wildlife like nursing cougar mothers and spotted kittens.

In the federal action, we are challenging the Game Commission’s rule under the Endangered Species Act, pointing out that indiscriminate traps put federally protected endangered wildlife like Mexican gray wolves and jaguars at risk.